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Beyond Pronatalism
Finding fulfillment, with or without kids
To have or not have kids is one of the biggest decisions we make in our lives, and yet how many of us know that we even have a choice about how we define and create our families? Beyond Pronatalism host Nandita Bajaj interviews women and men from diverse backgrounds who are courageously and creatively navigating pronatalism - the powerful pressures to have children - whether from family, friends, or the culture at large. Through intimate conversations, they discuss how they are forging unconventional pathways to fulfillment, including redefining what family means to them - whether that means being childfree or childless, having biological children, adopting or fostering children or animals, or creating close-knit communities of friends and loved ones.
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Episodes
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Rebecca | Sisters as Chosen Life Partners
Rebecca grew up homeschooled in a patriarchal American family, later serving as a Marine, attending university, and traveling the world. Bound by the shared trauma and values of their upbringing, Rebecca remained very close to her sister. Awakening to feminism and the planetary crisis together, they both decided to not have children. Today, Rebecca and her sister live together as each other's chosen life partners surrounded by mutual security, comfort, love, and trust.
Elena | Reimagining Family After Cancer
At age 27 Elena is diagnosed with an advanced cancerous brain tumor. As she confronts this life-changing and grief-filled reality, she also wrestles with the question of whether to bring a child into the world - balancing her love for children and the future she once imagined against her understanding of ecological overshoot, pronatalist pressures, and the profound uncertainties of life itself.
Joe | Every Earthling is My Family
Growing up in rural England, Joe knew early in life that he didn’t want children and felt a deep connection to the natural world. While navigating pressures to conform to “normal” life, he lost that connection in his 20s. Now, alongside his partner, he’s built a purposeful life rooted in love for nonhuman life — founding and managing an ecocentric journal and working to protect biodiversity in his local habitat.
Luke and Stefanie | The Simple Joys of a Childfree Life
Luke and Stefanie reflect on how, free from strong family or religious pressure and true to their own desires, they were able to make an early, mutual decision to live childfree. They reflect on the enormous emotional weight they've seen parents carry and express a profound relief and gratitude that they can enjoy meaningful, well-lived, childfree lives in kinship with the natural world.
Elizabet | Confessions of a Regretful Mother
Elizabet, the daughter of Bulgarian immigrants in the Czech Republic, shares her experience of coming out as gay in her teens and raising a child alone. She now speaks openly about her parental regret, rooted in her worry for both her child's future and her deep love for the natural world and concern for its destruction.
Bob | An Adoptee’s Journey of Self-Discovery
Born to a barmaid and adopted into a Southern Baptist home at the age of 6, Bob struggled with forming attachments. At 74, Bob reflects on the unconventional pathway his life took and what it took to find himself.
Jane | An OB-GYN on the Lack of True Choice
Jane went into obstetrics and gynecology after her own terrifying pregnancy experience. Now a fulfilled single mother of two, she shares her observations on the pressures women experience to have children, on the ethics of having children amid global ecological crisis, and on her own fight against the pronatalism of her profession.
Olivia | The Fear of Missing Out on Family
Olivia and her husband are both fairly certain they don’t want biological children, but they deeply value family and are afraid they’ll miss out. The challenges of the adoption process have thrown them into a state of uncertainty about how to have the family they crave, while staying true to their convictions.
Melissa | The Joys of the “Empty Nest”
Following in the footsteps of her grandparents, Melissa gave birth to four kids in rapid succession. She found raising children to be incredibly rewarding, yet wishes she had first taken the time to discover herself. As an empty nester, she is finally finding that time.
Juan Camilo | Childfree Biologist on Eco-Crises
Juan Camilo made a decision when he was a teenager that he would not bring children into a world where they would suffer. Despite the pressures of living in conservative Colombia, he has stuck to his convictions, and he continues teaching his biology students about the dangers of human overpopulation.
Laura | Escaping Trad Wife Culture
Raised in the conservative Deep South of the United States, Laura always believed having kids was a requirement. When she found out it was optional, suddenly everything changed.
Ash | Rejecting Mormonism and Motherhood
A Mormon upbringing, an accidental pregnancy, and lack of access to abortion services drove Ash to bear a child against her wishes. Committed to taking back her stolen autonomy, Ash takes a surprising path.
Hans-Peter | Vasectomy as a Gift of Love
Raised in a small Catholic village in Germany, Hans Peter had always questioned traditional norms. Concerned about the ecological crisis and threats to women's reproductive rights, he gifted himself a vasectomy on his 25th birthday. Today he spends his time with his wife joyfully nurturing the planet.
Vincie | Disrupting Family Expectations
Born and raised in densely-populated Hong Kong and having lived in different parts of the world, Vincie was always deeply concerned about the plight of children. She wrestled with traditional family norms and gender roles within Asian culture and arrived at a more liberated decision to not have biological children.
Lili | Escaping the Dread of Motherhood
Born and raised in Haiti, and now living in the US, Lili shares her story about her pronatalist upbringing in which having large families was the norm. After many years of dreading motherhood, she learned about the choice to not have children. Today, Lili is happily childfree and is using her spare time and resources to support others in her family and community.
Juliana | Childfree for Earth and Animals
Raised within the religiously-conservative Colombian culture with a lonely and isolated childhood, Juliana describes her journey of finding liberation by rejecting harmful societal norms and choosing a radical pathway of becoming a childfree environmentalist and animal rights activist.
Episodes will be released every two weeks, beginning Tuesday, July 30 2024, and will be available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and all podcast platforms.
Producer and Host: Nandita Bajaj
Production Team: Josh Wild, Alan Ware
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